What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Cosmo spring garden]

I saw in the Baker Creek catalogue a white bitter melon, do you grow that variety? It is very impressive looking, and so unique. Many years ago I was experimenting with different health enhancing products, and I tried a liquid called 'Swedish Bitters' - or something like that. I drank the recommended dose exactly and only once I believe, despite the rather steep price, because it felt a bit like getting kicked in the back of the throat with an old boot. I'm on much into torturing myself for longevity and vitality; my avoidance of bitterness commenced from there.

I grew up eating bitter melons because it is a standard vegetable in our culture but I hated it lol. My mom eats them all the time but like you I think it's pure torture lol.

 

[flowerbug]

will be out picking as many gardens of dry beans that i can get done. already been a busy day.

 

[flowerbug]

picked two buckets of onions (about 45lbs), a bucket of melons and four buckets of tomatoes. break time for a bit and then back out to pick dry beans the rest of the afternoon until i get too tired from that. then another break and will put up the tomatoes tonight. somewhere have to squeeze in cutting up the melons and getting that in the fridge. the onions are already set out in box tops with their bottom set to air dry.

buried all the stuff from picking onions in that garden and then made another trench in a neighboring bean garden so i could get the two bags of bean shells buried and also did some work to level that garden some more and used up a bucket of wood ashes.

 

[Zeedman]

It's been crazy busy putting up the harvest, and gathering dry seed. Taking @baymule 's advice, we pulled all of the Painted Mountain corn (which was mostly mature) before the next rain storm arrived. I husked those ears today; about 10 ears were spoiled & discarded. I threw those ears into the tree line, where the deer are likely to find them. The remaining ears look good.

Peppers are ripening out of sync with tomatoes this year, and most of those in the rural garden are stunted; but those in the home gardens are doing well, and beginning to ripen en masse. After total failure last year, Elephant's ear is really making up for lost time & will be our main sweet pepper this year.

 

[baymule]

Good looking corn you have there! The colors are so much fun. Here is @thistlebloom 's recipe for cornbread

Grandma Nathalies Cornbread

dry stuff
1 C sifted whole wheat flour (I just stir, I never sift)
4tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
dump the dry stuff together in a bowl and mix together.

wet stuff
This is what I dump in the blender.
1 &1/2, or 2, or whatever, C of soaked,
drained, corn
1/4 C oil, or melted butter
1/4 C honey ( or sugar)
2 eggs
1C of milk, or sour cream, or yogurt

Blend until it looks like the corn is ground up well.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients, stir until moistened and pour into a preheated and oiled cast iron skillet.

The recipe calls for a 9x9x2 pan, so use whatever skillet you have close to those dimensions.
Bake for about 20 -25 minutes at 425.

I modified grandmas recipe for the soaked corn of course. Her recipe called for 1 C of yellow cornmeal.

 

[Phaedra]

Gave my 2 Padovana hens a new haircut, so they can see better

 

[flowerbug]

Gave my 2 Padovana hens a new haircut, so they can see better
View attachment 43694

reminds me of Elizabeth Taylor...

 

[flowerbug]

picked more dry beans, melons and some of the squash.

 

[Zeedman]

DW & I spent much of yesterday in the rural garden. We picked a few tomatoes; but 3 varieties are done, and another 3 are rotting on the vine & will be disposed of off-site. The yield was incredibly disappointing; but there was enough to save fresh seed for everything, and the tomatoes at home produced enough for sauce.

Amfora & Melrose peppers are ripening, so we harvested some for eating & seed. Both are sweet. I love the fact that peppers don't force you to choose between seed or food... you can have your cake & eat it too. Amfora is the only pepper in the rural garden which is producing almost normally.

We picked what will probably be the last gherkins. I've been selecting for smoother gherkins, and have 4 smooth-skinned fruits let go for seed... but crab grass has overwhelmed the patch, and I can't afford to let it seed. I'll try to mow high to collect the crab grass seed heads, while avoiding the gherkins on the ground; but may not be able to save them. I harvested about 1/2 of the ripe WI 5207 cucumbers grown for seed, and will be processing them for seed when they soften... the other row, grown for eating, is still producing. Bitter melon is still producing too, but the vines felt the touch of Fall & are beginning to yellow.

The dry bean harvest is almost done, except for Sangre de Toro, which recovered late from the flooding. It has been stunted from pole habit to bush, but is still producing a decent amount of seed. The limas (McClelland Heirloom, a new trial) are ripening quickly... so quickly that we may not get to test them as butterbeans. Cowpeas (both rural & at home) are still producing dry seed. MN 13 has even re-sprouted & set new pods; it will be interesting to see if they can mature a second set before frost.

I'm hoping for a good dry spell soon to begin building the raised bed for next year's garlic.

 

[seedcorn]

Ran the corn stalks and weeds through chipper/shredder about 10 days ago. Yesterday, I spread about 110# of soybeans over the area and tried to till it all under. All I did was mix the beans with the silage and straw I bedded the area down with some dirt. I’m ok with that as it will break down and feed worms this fall, winter and early spring. It will be gone by time to till again,